Hello
I am 30 years old. I kind of have been in pursuit of medical school since I was 26. I graduated with a BS in Biochemistry and Chemistry and did not super well on my GPA. I didn’t pursue medicine then because it seemed too hard for me and I wasn’t sure I still wanted to do it. I worked in pharmaceuticals part-time during my senior year and got a full time job in pharmaceuticals after I graduated. I liked working and earning money. But working in that setting really didn’t do it for me. I felt something was always missing. I asked my family if it was ok for me to quit and go back home and pursue school. So then I did.
I did a post bac for a year taking undergrad courses. I was about 4 hours shy of finishing another bachelors when I was told of this other pre-med post bac masters certificate in Drexel. Got in within weeks and literally left everything. I took out a huge loan and moved to Philadelphia for this 1 year program and it was hell. I mean I did well (it really helped me with my MCAT score 18>27). Then I was convinced to do a 2nd year where you take med school courses and are graded against the medical students. So I did. But I didn’t do well especially in 2nd semester and I got so sick. It was terrible. I didn’t graduate for that 2nd year program. I left to go back home and now had a huge school debt.
I tried applying after that 1st year and didn’t get in. No interviews. The “bad” 2nd year really affected me. I then took a temp job getting at a pharmaceutical. But that also got too much- home life & work life were the same for me. I was literally overused. SO I just got out of that job. Im now in Harrisburg where I have someone helping me out. But I am looking for a job in the meantime. And I really want to pursue medical school here. I wasn’t sure what I should do or what kind of job would be beneficial for me to go into. I know I need to also fix my grades and maybe retake some things that are old. But I feel really lost. I would appreciate any insight. Thank you.
Hi PuffyCheeks36,
I saw your post and I related so well to you! I am 29 years old, also from a Filipino family… did you just take out federal student loans for your post bacc program??? And you mentioned in your last post that you did well, what was your gpa?
Only focus on the classes you DID NOT DO WELL ON… because your post bacc gpa is shown separate in the AMCAS applications as separately. How was your MCAT score? You said it went up 10 points! You’re closer to med school! I haven’t taken the MCAT myself, I took on so much and mostly tried juggling too many classes while working and volunteering… it was NOT a great self-reflection of my potential.
Currently, I am going to take out a very expensive loan… I live in Hawaii with a single mom… so if you are Fresh Off the Boat like me, you know your parents can’t help you at all… boo, I will be working my full time job and ideally have FAFSA to provide federal loans for my post bacc classes at Hawaii Pacific University. I would do community college but the classes are only during my day job, which I cannot afford to quit.
Hi Frosty88
I’m glad to hear from you! 
To answer your questions - my 1st year postbac was in-state so I took a FAFSA loan on that and it was only about 8k-ish for tuition and living expenses. I did not work during that time so I lived off that. Then when I moved to Philadelphia the program at Drexel is set out to be like a graduate program so thats how they justify to FAFSA for loaning because there are different types of loans. (mind you this is from what I understood because it was so difficult to figure out how to loan $ for these programs) There is a federal cap on how much you can loan for undergrad and a separate cap for graduate federal loan and then a separate cap for medical school loan. So I was close to reaching my cap for undergrad loan but the school told me to put graduate loan. So I did. I did that for the 2 years I was at Drexel. It was roughly a loan of 40K a year so now I have maybe ~80K on Grad loan. For some people they had to take out an additional private loan only because they couldn’t get that federal loan. So thats that for loans.
For my MCAT, I got an 18 the first year I took it. I was working full time in pharmaceuticals at the time and studying kind of half-aed and half-aed the classes I paid for by princeton review. After my first year at Drexel which was probably a good 2-3 years after the first score, I got a 27. The first program at drexel included an mcat prep course. It did me well. That score was in 2014.
For my grades, this is all embarrassing but I’m hoping I help someone out there by sharing. I received a GPA of <3.0 for both my BS in Biochemistry and BS in Chemistry (double degreed in undergrad - overachiever like u haha). A’s and B’s during 1st year of post bac at the instate university. A’s and few B’s during 1st year at Drexel. Then I got B’s, C’s, and D’s and drops on my last year at Drexel. 
Maybe there were F’s too. It is quiet depressing to bring everything up to only bring it back down at the end.
I hope that helps. Good luck to you. You sound as busy as me.